Pulitzer Prize–winning author and physician Siddhartha Mukherjee discusses the updated edition of his groundbreaking book on cancer.

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Originally published in 2010, The Emperor of All Maladies is a humane “biography” of cancer, tracing the disease from its first documented appearance thousands of years ago through the 20th century’s battles to cure, control, and understand it. Siddhartha Mukherjee expands on his Pulitzer Prize-winning book in an updated edition, including four new chapters that illuminate extraordinary developments in cancer detection, prevention, and what the future may hold in the fight against this complex disease.

Mukherjee discusses the latest edition of his book with physician Dhruv Khullar.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil, is a physician, researcher, author and entrepreneur. He is the Co-Founder and CEO (with Reid Hoffman) of Manas AI, a biotechnology company pioneering the use of AI to accelerate the discovery of new medicines. Dr. Mukherjee is also an Associate Professor of Medicine from Columbia University Irving Medical Center (currently on leave). His widely lauded books and articles have made a vast contribution to the public discourse of human health, medicine and science. He is the founder of multiple biotechnology companies throughout the globe, a co-inventor of several life-saving medicines, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer earned the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, and The Gene: An Intimate History was a #1 New York Times Bestseller and won international awards and was recognized by The Washington Post and The New York Times as one of the most influential books of 2016. Both books have been adapted into PBS documentaries by the renowned filmmaker Ken Burns. The Emperor of All Maladies was included among Time magazine’s and the New York Times’ 100 best nonfiction books of the past century.

As a medical scholar, Dr. Mukherjee has conducted innovative research that signals a paradigm shift in cancer pathology and has enabled the development of treatments that disrupt current pharmaceutical models toward new biological and cellular therapies. He was among the first to make cellular therapies available in India, and among the first to begin developing AI-based algorithms to discover human medicines. His groundbreaking research is now being translated into a record number of concurrent clinical trials across the globe, spanning novel therapies for ovarian, breast, and endometrial cancer, and leukemias and lymphomas.

Dr. Mukherjee writes for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and many other publications. He has received numerous awards for his scientific work and has published his original research and opinions in journals such as Nature, Cell, and The New England Journal of Medicine.

A native of India, Dr. Mukherjee received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen College, University of Oxford. After graduating from Harvard Medical School, he completed his internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and his hematology-oncology fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Dhruv Khullar, M.D., M.P.P. is a physician and associate professor of health policy and economics at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is also a writer at The New Yorker, where he covers medicine, health care, and politics. He serves as Director of the Physicians Foundation Center for the Study of Physician Practice and Leadership, and Associate Director of the Cornell Health Policy Center. His academic research focuses on value-based care, health care consolidation, and medical innovation, and his writing has been featured in The Best American Science and Nature Writing.

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ACCESSIBILITY

In-Person | Assistive listening devices and/or hearing loops are available at the venue. You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email accessibility@nypl.org or use this Gmail template. This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs. 

Livestream | Captions and a transcript will be provided. Media used over the course of the conversation will be accompanied by alt text and/or audio description. You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email accessibility@nypl.org or use this Gmail template.

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Siddhartha Mukherjee © Deborah Feingold
Courtesy Dhruv Khullar